The Film

Philip Petit is a self-taught high-wire walker who was blessed with the skills, charisma, and enormous balls required to pull off the most daring high-wire act the world will ever see.  In 1974, Petit and his accomplices sneaked into the World Trade Center, carried 3 tons (yes, that is tons) of rigging equipment to the roof, and spent the night stringing a steel cable between the north and south tower.  As dawn broke, Philip stepped out onto the wire and spent the next 45 minutes suspended between the towers.  He walked back and forth 8 times.  He layed down on the wire.  He did a somersault.  He did all this at a height greater than anyone has or will do it again.

The film chronicles the events leading up to the walk.  How Philip saw a notice about the construction of the towers and was instantly inspired.  How he trained and plotted with his group of accomplices.  How they managed to get all the equipment past security to the rooftop and get the whole rig assembled completely undetected. And the amazing walk itself.

There is some recreated footage, but it is remarkable how much film was spent documenting the process.  Philip and his crew knew they were doing something amazing, and wanted to be able to share it with the world.

In case you haven't caught on yet, this is a documentary.  This actually happened.  I walked out of the theater wondering: what other amazing things have happened in the world that I am completely unaware of?

Why haven't you seen it?

Man on Wire was released to a relatively small number of theaters earlier this year.  It just came out on DVD last week.  You haven't had the chance to see it, and you might not have heard of it yet, but you will.  In fact, once Oscar time rolls around it will no longer be eligible for the Movie Night Movie Project, because it will win Best Documentary Feature.  Mark it down on your Oscar pool ballots now.  You just got one point.  You are welcome.

Why should you see it?

There is a famous optical illusion, called "Daughter or Mother In Law?"  It is a picture that can be seen as either an elderly woman or a young girl.  It came to mind when thinking about this movie.  Man on Wire can be seen one way when taken at face value, but the terrorist attacks that brought down the twin towers color the entire proceedings in a way that could not have been anticipated.  Consider an early scene, at the site we now call Ground Zero.  There are no towers, just a pit with some construction equipment inside.  It is a scene we are all too familiar with.  Except it is not, because this footage was taken thirty years ago; we are watching the beginning of the construction.  Our modern day context informs the way we interpret all the events of the film.  It is no mistake that the filmmakers completely ignore the ultimate fate of the towers, the old woman.  They want you to see their movie, and their incredible achievement, as the beautiful girl. 

I have spoiled the ending.  Petit and his crew are successful.  But you know this going in, even without my input; why would there be a movie if he had failed? Plus, the poster for the movie sort of gives it away.  And yet, through a combination of archival and recreated footage, the movie builds suspense.  It is a structured like a heist movie.  Imagine that the equipment was to crack a safe at the top of the towers instead of walk between them, and the first half of this movie would play almost exactly the same way. 

And that walk! The photographs and film that they captured that day is incredible.  I just got a little dizzy thinking about it.